Inductive plasma current start-up by the outer vertical field coil in a spherical tokamak

Abstract

Plasma current-start up induced by an outer vertical field coil is studied during the ignition access phase in a spherical tokamak reactor. We have illustrated the concept that the plasma current of ~50 MA could be induced by the outer vertical field coil in the proposed spherical tokamak with the help of the small central solenoid flux of ±5 V s and the strong heating power less than 100 MW for the internal inductance of i~0.4-0.8 without the help of bootstrap current and non-inductive current drive power. The required condition to achieve this operation scenario is that the flux produced by the equilibrium vertical field is larger than the inductive flux. Current start-up operation is achieved by adding the small ohmic heating solenoid flux for the flux waveform adjustment because the flux from the outer vertical field coil cannot solely induce the desired plasma current waveform in the case of the preprogramming of the heating power.